Tracy Wilkinson
The title of this book is misleading: the Vatican doesn’t have a Delta Force of exorcists ready to cast out demons anywhere at a moment’s notice. A better, though not as marketable, title would have been “Some Italian Exorcists”, for the book is really about the rtitual’s growing popularity in that country and some of its leading practitioners. Quibbling about the title aside, Wilkinson is fair and respectful and the book doesn’t strive to be sensational. Though she does describe a full-blown, movie-style exorcism, she spends more time talking about lesser cases, ranging down to simple blessings. She also delves into the ambivalence surrounding the practice, ambivalence felt by some churchmen who are required by doctrine to accept the possibility of possession but who are vary cautious about crediting the devil with particular phenomena or symtoms in specific cases.